100 volunteers to venture to Mars as part of the manned mission to the Red Planet have been shortlisted this week. While the first mission is planned to include four people, one of the pioneers hopes to expand the colony by giving birth on the planet.

The shortlist of candidates dreaming of getting a one-way ticket
to Mars and becoming the first humans to settle on the planet was
whittled down to just 100 volunteers this week. People from
around the globe, including five Russians and candidates from
such countries as the United States, Philippines, Denmark,
Bolivia, Vietnam, Japan, Iraq, Ukraine and China, all aged
between 19 and 60 years old, have made it to "The Mars 100."

"I applied for Mars One because I wanted to make a difference
in the world. I wanted to do something that I knew could inspire
people to want to go into science, engineering and
technology," Ryan MacDonald, an Oxford student in physics,
told RT.

Ryan, along with 99 other candidates, was chosen out of more than
200,000 people, who originally applied for a journey in the
planned four-seat spaceship, announced by the Dutch Mars One NGO
in 2013. In time, 24 finalists will be chosen out of the current
hundred to get a chance to set up a permanent human settlement on
the Red Planet by 2024.

"We are not just going there in order to plant a flag, scoop
some rocks, then bring them back to the Earth. What we are doing
is bringing permanence to Mars, we're going to build a settlement
on Mars, and that way we achieve a lasting legacy for the human
race," the Oxford student told RT. The fact that the mission
is a one-way trip "is part of the attraction of it,"
Ryan added.

Another finalist, a 24-year-old astrophysics student from the
English city of Birmingham, is already looking even further into
the future, having suggested she might become the first woman to
give birth on the Red Planet after creating a family with one of
the other finalists.

"I think it would be really amazing to be the first woman to
give birth on Mars, because no research has got into the effects
of gravity on a fetus. Nobody knows - if it all works, it will
change medicine and knowledge for future to come," Maggie
Lieu told RT.

"When we first go to Mars it's not really gonna be a suitable
place to bring up a child, but in order to create a human
settlement it will eventually happen," she said, adding that
a possible father might also be from the finalists' team, as the
volunteers will have to spend all their time together, training
for the mission. The girl does believe in Martians, but
"probably in the form of microbs," Maggie said, so she
doesn't rely on alien guests potentially expanding the Red Planet
settlement.

The Mars One pioneers are expected to undergo years of
preparation, including technical training, acquiring wider
knowledge and skills in engineering and medicine, as well as
personal training to cope with the long-term isolation and
learning to work as a team.

The privately funded project, which is expected to cost six
billion dollars, is already lined up to provide the backdrop for
a new reality television series. If all goes according to plan,
every move of the one-way mission pioneers will be broadcast for
an audience of billions.

"It will be as if Marco Polo had a camera on his journeys of
exploration. Every human being with access to the internet or
television will be watching," Bas Lansdorp, the founder and
chief executive of the project, told the Independent.

While the Mars One finalists are all excited about their daring
mission, the project has definitely been met with skepticism in
some circles. Critics say with the lack of funding and an absence
of an actual spacecraft, Mars One is little more than a gimmick.

But the doubters have done nothing to quell the enthusiasm of the
potential candidates.

"I think it's completely possible that it will happen,"
Maggie Lieu told RT, adding that even if the Mars One mission
doesn't reach its aim, it's still an inspiring project. "The
great thing about it is that it kick started an initiative by
companies like NASA, SpaceX and other private and governmental
schemes to start looking into missions to Mars.”